SXSW preview: 10 buzzy events, from 'Cabin in the Woods' to a conversation with Seth MacFarlane

Part musical festival, part film festival, part tech-head confab, SXSW is a unique event in the pop-culture firmament, bringing massive stars and indie up-and-comers in music, movies, and tech together in the Texas hill country of Austin. Running from March 9-17, the film festival has especially expanded its profile in the last few years: The 2011 SXSW fest featured premieres of Jodie Foster’s The Beaver, the doc Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop, the Jake Gyllenhaal thriller Source Code, the sci-fi comedy Paul, and the eventually Oscar-winning feature documentary Undefeated.

My colleague Karen Valby and I will be on the scene for this year’s fest, which definitely looks to have its share of major highlights. Here’s what’s catching the biggest buzz heading into this year’s SXSW:

The Cabin in the Woods — Produced by Joss Whedon and directed by Drew Goddard (i.e. the screenwriter for Cloverfield), this mysterious horror flick has been lying in wait for over two years thanks in large part to the MGM bankruptcy. Now that the film’s been snapped up by Lionsgate and is finally heading to theaters next month, expect your Twitter feed to be inundated with reactions after Cabin‘s premiere on Friday night. And you should not read any of them. Cabin in the Woods is a film for which the words SPOILER ALERT were invented.

21 Jump Street– Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum star as rookie cops who go undercover as high school students. But if the Centerpiece film of SXSW seems a bit, well, lowbrow for a major film festival — I mean, it is a studio action-comedy adaptation of a beloved ’80s TV show — rest assured that this is not your typical action-comedy adaptation of a beloved ’80s TV show.

Girls — In a SXSW first, the fest is screening the first three episodes of the upcoming HBO series from star and creator Lena Dunham and exec producer Judd Apatow. The 25-year-old Dunham’s career launched at SXSW two years ago with her acclaimed indie film Tiny Furniture, which won the top narrative prize. And that leads us to the similarly named…

A Conversation with Seth MacFarlane– The wildly prolific creator of Family Guy will talk about his multiple TV shows, his budding music career, and, most notably, his feature film directorial debut, Ted, starring Mark Wahlberg as a man who as a kid wished his teddy bear would come to life — and it did. MacFarlane, naturally, voices the bear.

In Our Nature – Zach Gilford (Friday Night Lights) and John Slattery (Mad Men) star as an estranged son and father who serendipitously end up at a vacation house with their girlfriends (Jena Malone and Gabrielle Union)

frankie go boom — More warring brothers, this time played by Charlie Hunnam (Sons of Anarchy) and Chris O’Dowd (Bridesmaids). Ron Perlman’s turn as a transgender hacker looks to be one of the most talked about performances of the festival.

Marley — Presented as the “definitive” doc about Bob Marley’s life story, Kevin Macdonald’s film won wide praise when it debuted at the Berlin Film Festival last month.

Adam Horovitz—who Beastie Boys fans know as Ad-Rock—is the latest grown man featured in Rookie’s “Ask a Grown Man” series, which features famous males doling out advice on topics ranging from first kisses to perpetual insecurity.

James Corden might have found another career path if his gig at The Late Late Show doesn’t pan out. If this new skit’s any indication, he has a shot in the modeling world. Corden and retired soccer star David Beckham created a mock ad for a sham underwear line, for which the two were spokesmen.

Super Mario 64 is one of the animated plumber’s most famous adventures, and also one of the most important games in the medium’s history. The Nintendo platformer helped set the benchmark for how many 3D games would be designed and played, from the late ’90s to today.

And while its gameplay certainly hasn’t aged poorly, the game’s visuals have—which is why someone decided to give Super Mario 64 a new sheen of HD paint.

Anyone trying to reach Jimmy Fallon will want their calls to go to voicemail now. Lin-Manuel Miranda, the man behind In the Heights and the recent stage phenomenon Hamilton—a rap musical about founding father Alexander Hamilton—recently freestyled an outgoing voicemail message for the overjoyed late night host. Phillipa Soo, who plays Hamilton’s wife Eliza in the show, provided the beatboxing, while singer Sara Bareilles was apparently operating the camera.

Each year, dozens of prized orange dirigibles are handed out at Nickelodeon’s Kids’ Choice Awards. And, more notably, multiple celebrities are doused with green slime at the Kids’ Choice Awards.

Everyone knows going into the show that no one is safe from the slime, but some are more surprised than others—Modern Family’s Sarah Hyland, for one, looked visibly shocked when the goo poured over her and her co-stars. Here are the most amusing slimes of the night: